Lawsuit: Va. prison leaders kept inmates from early release (2024)

Then the Virginia Department of Corrections changed course. It declared that Puryear wasn’t eligible for the new calculation and that he must remain behind bars for another three years. “That was very devastating, man,” Puryear said in an interview, of that day in July 2022. “It’s almost like being released and getting locked up again.”

In 2023, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the department had misinterpreted the law and ordered the release of a man convicted of attempted murder. But still, Puryear remained behind bars until the American Civil Liberties Union and the D.C. civil rights law firm Relman Colfax sued on his behalf. Virginia responded by letting him out in November, about 16 months after his original release date.

Now Puryear, 38, is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed June 28 against the current and former directors of the Department of Corrections, Chadwick Dotson and Harold Clarke, seeking damages for the months, or, in some cases, years, that the suit alleges Virginia wrongly imprisoned inmates beyond their release dates. Puryear’s group of potential plaintiffs is limited to those convicted of attempting, soliciting or conspiring to commit robbery or carjacking.

The law shortening Puryear’s sentence was among a sweeping package of measures Democrats passed in 2020 to overhaul criminal justice and police oversight after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. It allowed for prisoners convicted of inchoate offenses — attempting rather than completing a crime — to receive expanded credits, but not those who actually committed offenses such as robbery and murder.

The next year, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) swept into office in part on a promise to get tougher on crime, and in 2022, he sought to tighten who could qualify for early release. Although he lacked full Republican control of the legislature, Youngkin managed to insert language into the state budget and then took administrative action to effect the change. As the new attorney general, Jason S. Miyares (R) issued an advisory opinion to then-corrections head Clarke saying that the inchoate offenses did not qualify. The corrections department revised its calculations accordingly, and prisoners such as Puryear saw their release dates pushed back.

Spokespeople for the Department of Corrections and the Virginia attorney general, who will defend the suit, declined to comment on pending litigation.

Lawyers for the ACLU and Relman Colfax, which is representing Puryear in this case, said they did not know exactly how many former inmates qualified to join the lawsuit. They said the corrections department in December had identified 150 incarcerated people with inchoate crimes related to robbery and carjacking, had released 31 of them and was recalculating release dates for the rest.

“There was no ambiguity about it,” said attorney Rebecca Livengood, one of Puryear’s lawyers. “Contrary to the clearly established law, they kept people in who were very explicitly entitled to sentence credits and early release.”

The law, signed by then-Gov. Ralph Northam (D), increased the potential deduction from a qualifying prison sentence for good behavior, shifting the earliest possible release time to 67 percent of a sentence from 85 percent of a sentence. Those who successfully complete counseling and training programs, and have no serious behavioral infractions, could get up to 15 days reduced from their sentence for every 30 days served, or six months for every year served.

Lawmakers at the time cast the measure as a tool to incentivize rehabilitation, drawing incarcerated people into training programs and counseling, and to reduce the likelihood of breaking rules inside or reoffending outside. Taxpayers, some argued, would benefit.

Puryear was initially informed that he would get three years reduced from his 18-year sentence and would be eligible for release in 2022 instead of 2025. He had received technical training and completed classes in changing behavior and maintaining a job and was told to quickly prepare a “home plan” for his release.

“I knew, waking up every day, I shouldn’t be here,” Puryear recalled in an interview. While he waited, he missed his son’s high school graduation and the birth of a grandson.

The ACLU sued the state on behalf of an inmate convicted of attempted murder, and in July 2023, the state Supreme Court ruled that the corrections department wrongly withheld credits for Steven Prease. Prease was freed. But Puryear and others remained inside.

The corrections department “unilaterally decided to exclude those with attempted robbery convictions from the expanded early sentence credit program,” the new lawsuit argues, even after the Supreme Court had ruled that the General Assembly specifically did not exclude inmates with “attempted” crime convictions.

The ACLU sued again on Puryear’s behalf. Virginia responded in November by freeing him.

Now working in a Brunswick County business repairing homes and cars, Puryear said he’s focused on providing for his family. His wife is pregnant with his fifth child, a daughter. “It’s a great feeling to be here for them,” he said.

The Youngkin administration attempted to roll back the credits again in the current budget cycle, and Miyares sent a letter to the General Assembly arguing that the early releases resulted in more crimes being committed. The ACLU and other groups challenged the claims made by Miyares, and the General Assembly ignored Youngkin and Miyares and allowed the credits to be fully implemented as of Monday. Puryear said he had spoken to a number of incarcerated people who were released this week.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for Puryear and all members of the class, plus costs and attorneys fees. Vishal Agraharkar, a lawyer for the ACLU, underscored in an interview that the organization has filed four lawsuits to force the corrections department to abide by the law.

This story has been updated to reflect that Relman Colfax and the ACLU sued on Puryear’s behalf in an action that resulted in Virginia releasing Puryear in November.